Saturday, February 25, 2012

There are a number of self-promotional ads in this issue as DC apparently does as much as possible to get new readers in the wake of falling sales. LEADING COMICS, once the home of THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY, has now been taken over by funny animals.

Very stylized but delightful art on a fun JOHNNY QUICK story this issue, as seen below.

Friday, February 24, 2012

An unusual cover that literally could have been used as a safety poster.

Note below that the indicia--that thing at the bottom of the page with information on what you're reading and who published it--is now on the bottom of the first page rather than the bottom of the inside front cover. Eventually, this would become industry standard for decades but at this point, it must have seemed a little odd to any readers who actually noticed it.

Here's a lovely splash for Johnny Quick with artist Mort Meskin seemingly having great fun on this character.

Early attempts at branding in the post-war world. More comics than ever covering more subjects than ever and yet no one really seemed to have much of an identity...so DC decided they would. Note the presence of BOY COMMANDOS, said to have actually outsold SUPERMAN for a time.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

This cover reminds us that Superboy is, in fact, Superman as a boy. This means that if the adult Superman is, as was often stated by DC in later years, perpetually 29 years old, then these early tales of him at about 10 must be taking place in the mid-1920's! This, of course, would lead to plenty of anachronisms over the years, perhaps the most obvious being the infamous attempt at cashing in on the success of the sixties film, BONNIE & CLYDE by having teenage Clark and Lana meet the notorious bank robber killers. Since they died in 1934, this would have made the then-current Superman nearly fifty!

CELEBRATING ADVENTURE COMICS!

NEW COMICS was the first real comic book from National Allied Publications, the comics publisher that would become DC. It debuted in the Autumn of 1935. Eventually it would become NEW ADVENTURE COMICS and finally simply ADVENTURE COMICS. In a long and storied history lasting nearly fifty years, the title would showcase a diverse and wondrous list of features from MANHUNTER and SUPERBOY to THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, THE BLACK ORCHID and THE SPECTRE. I even had MY first letter published in an issue in 1968! Here we will take a look at one issue of ADVENTURE COMICS, in order, every single day...all the way through the original run's end in 1983.

Just SOME of the cast of ADVENTURE COMICS!

About Me

First published in 1968 (I was 9!), I have been writing professionally part-time for more than two decades. I have been freelancing for various authors, editors and publishers for the past three years on the behind-the-scenes tasks of writing.